Sharpening the saw?

[Dr2bme]

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Thats Stephen R. Covey's 7th habbit

Im just wondering, every course in med school is different and requires different set of study skills. How do you get to know which one to apply where?
Is there any book, source, website to read about polishing your study skills?
Thanks

 

[bydotte]

Thats Stephen R. Covey's 7th habbit

Im just wondering, every course in med school is different and requires different set of study skills. How do you get to know which one to apply where?
Is there any book, source, website to read about polishing your study skills?
Thanks

my (successful) technique - start off "properly," meaning do the reading before lecture, attend lecture and take notes, and study all of the above as many times as possible before the test - which is usually once thoroughly over a couple weeks, and once quickly in the last couple of days before a test. obviously you can't keep this up for every single class (at least i didn't care to), because there is too much to read, but you begin to get a sense for what you can get by with in order to meet your goals. you will be eager at the beginning so it's not too hard to go "balls to the wall" for a little while then trim what you can. there's no way to predict specifically what and how you need to study until you are in it, but in general, try to strictly memorize as little as possible.

 

[Jolie South]

Everyone's study technique is different, so it's doubtful that a book exists. It's pretty much up to you to decide how you most effectively learn material.

 

[ZagDoc]

I found my study techniques were pretty consistent throughout most subjects. Small tweaks here and there (memorization heavy classes like biochem and micro were much more flashcard intensive for me) but for the most part its about experimenting in the beginning, finding what works for you, then sticking to your guns until it doesn't work anymore.

 

[Excelsius]

Thats Stephen R. Covey's 7th habbit

Im just wondering, every course in med school is different and requires different set of study skills. How do you get to know which one to apply where?
Is there any book, source, website to read about polishing your study skills?
Thanks

Well, sharpening the saw in his book mainly refers to practicing your skills to gain independence and interdependence in your life and workplace. One thing that he tries to teach the reader is the strive to be proactive. So at least you are taking the right steps trying to find out what to do. If you don't get satisfactory answers here, you can move on to Amazon.com and do a search. Also try your local library.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

Everyone's study technique is different, so it's doubtful that a book exists. It's pretty much up to you to decide how you most effectively learn material.

There are actually a few books on this exact topic, although I have my doubts about how useful they'd be.

 

[WellWornLad]

I have only one set of study skills: sit down with the syllabus and take notes. It's worked pretty well so far.

 

[Dr2bme]

Thanks for the replies, I actually am sure there are few books related to this..something along the lines of "Surviving med school"..I just remember reading it somewhere.

I was actually looking for someone to "recommend" a book of this sort.

 

[Law2Doc]

Everyone's study technique is different, so it's doubtful that a book exists. It's pretty much up to you to decide how you most effectively learn material.

Agree. IMHO, such a book would be garbage because it would only really apply well to a very small subset of people, and probably would be detrimental to everybody else. One mains salvation is another's poison in med school. So you are better off finding your own way, creating your own "book" so to speak, and not getting too bogged down in other's methods. If you are in med school, you have made it further along the educational system than 99% of the nation, and there really aren't many people qualified to tell you how best to study. That's sort of like Tom Brady reading Peyton Manning's book on how to play quarterback. Might be good bathroom reading, but it's hard to imagine he's going to revamp his approach because of it.

 

[Dr2bme]

Agree. IMHO, such a book would be garbage because it would only really apply well to a very small subset of people, and probably would be detrimental to everybody else. One mains salvation is another's poison in med school. So you are better off finding your own way, creating your own "book" so to speak, and not getting too bogged down in other's methods. If you are in med school, you have made it further along the educational system than 99% of the nation, and there really aren't many people qualified to tell you how best to study. That's sort of like Tom Brady reading Peyton Manning's book on how to play quarterback. Might be good bathroom reading, but it's hard to imagine he's going to revamp his approach because of it.

So your basically saying that there are infinite different methods because every one is different?

Im sure there is overlap, there are always common grounds, people are not different 100% neither are they same 100%.. Any one writing their thoughts out for helping others cannot be garbage.

 

[WellWornLad]

So your basically saying that there are infinite different methods because every one is different?

Im sure there is overlap, there are always common grounds, people are not different 100% neither are they same 100%..

The point is not that there are infinite methods, but that what works for person A will not necessarily work for person B, even when studying the same material. If you're going to med school, you already know 99% of the ways to study out there, and the other 1% probably aren't any better than the ones you know. You just have to figure out what works for you.

Any one writing their thoughts out for helping others cannot be garbage.

In med school, garbage = anything that wastes your time (a.k.a., low yield). Spend your spare time enjoying yourself, not studying how to study.

 

[Law2Doc]

The point is not that there are infinite methods, but that what works for person A will not necessarily work for person B, even when studying the same material. If you're going to med school, you already know 99% of the ways to study out there, and the other 1% probably aren't any better than the ones you know. You just have to figure out what works for you.



In med school, garbage = anything that wastes your time (a.k.a., low yield). Spend your spare time enjoying yourself, not studying how to study.

Exactly (but better said than I did). Thanks.

 

[Dr2bme]

I totally agree with what you said but studying how to study cannot be a waste. These are silent skills which no med school teaches, some people just get to learn them and some take time. There is nothing wrong in learning your mistakes and knowing what goes wrong from someone elses experience.

 

[bassfishindoc]

To the OP, books abound on the subject, but the central focus of them all seems to be to find what works for you. So instead of wasting the money and time reading a book, just do that, find out what works for you.

 

[Law2Doc]

I totally agree with what you said but studying how to study cannot be a waste. These are silent skills which no med school teaches, some people just get to learn them and some take time. There is nothing wrong in learning your mistakes and knowing what goes wrong from someone elses experience.

Actually you don't "totally agree" with what was said based on the rest of your response above. Every person is going to benefit from some methods and waste time with others. And wasting time is a bad thing when you don't have that much of it. You have to figure out what works for YOU on your own. It's not like you can find a book and say -- this is exactly what I needed and be set. Most likely, you can read such a book, and 97% will be worthless to you, while 3% might provide some value. Is the time spent reading an entire book for so low yield worth it? For most the answer is decidedly no. You are better off using your past study experience as a guide, and tweaking and revamping things until you find what works. But to spend much time with other's approaches isn't going to get most people where they need to be. Because there are basically 100 approaches out there that each work well for 1% of the med school population, and are perhaps disastrous for the other 99%, and you don't really have time to read enough of them to make the odds that you will find one that works for you appreciably good. So you are better off stepping back and figuring out your own way, based on knowing yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, and what has and hasn't worked for you in the past. The only book that matters is the one you write yourself on this topic.

So no, you don't agree with the above at all. But you probably will at some point down the line, once you waste enough time delving through enough other people's "systems" that come up short for you personally.

 

[Dr2bme]

This thread is not there to argue, I actually "do" understand what you are saying. What ever you said is 100% correct. I agree with you when you say that only book that matters is the one you write yourself.
I guess I need to learn from my own study habits, I was positive with what I said before about these certain types of books because they helped a great deal before.
Thanks for ur post